Good morning, it's Paul here, with the SCVR for Friday.

Many thanks to Jack for covering yesterday.

Timing - you have my full, undivided attention today, so I'll be working all day. Finish time about 16:00. Am hoping to catch up on HOTC & a few other backlog items. Update at 16:36 - I'm just finishing off HOTC, it should be up by 5pm. Update at 17:19 - today's report is now finished.

Agenda -

Saga (LON:SAGA) (I hold) - successful refinancing of borrowings

New floats - regulatory developments, and a quick look at InTheStyle

Hill Report - a few comments

Hotel Chocolat (LON:HOTC) - Interim results from earlier this week. Interesting company, but very expensive.

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Saga (LON:SAGA)

400p (pre market open) - mkt cap £560m

Corporate and cruise ship finance facilities

Preamble - Renegotiation of the group’s borrowings was the last remaining significant question mark hanging over this share. That’s now sorted with today’s announcement.

I’m going to keep reporting on SAGA here, despite the market cap being £560m now, it having tripled in price from the lows in Oct 2020. This is because SAGA is a big holding for me personally, and lots of Stockopedia subscribers too. So far the bull case is playing out exactly as I’d hoped. All we now need to see, is the 2 cruise ships, plus the rest of the travel division, resume operations. Given the target over-50s market have now mostly been vaccinated, then it shouldn’t be long.

I note that Carnival announced this week that its P&O division will soon be doing some cruises in UK coastal waters, instead of going further afield. The idea being that a lot of people would be happy just to go cruising, and right now don’t really care where the ship actually goes! Given that Europe is lagging so far behind the UK in vaccinations, that sounds sensible as a stop-gap.

A few years ago I went on short (3 and 5 day) cruises in UK waters, and we loved it - just being on the ship, enjoying all the facilities, lovely food & wine, shows, gym, etc, was really relaxing. Not suitable for everyone I know, but in my view there would probably be plenty of demand given current circumstances.

Today’s update -

Ship loans - this is by far…

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